Hi jazz,
I listen to most types of music but jazz is primary for me.
Good audio systems are complex because of the interrelationships between so many of the individual components. The cartridge should be matched with the tonearm (mass and resonance), the phono stage (whether separate or integrated) with the cartridge, the preamp or line stage with the amp (both for gain and impedance match), the amp with the speakers (power, impedance curve, damping, sonics), and the speakers with your room (placement and size considerations, radiation pattern) and sonic tastes. Underlying all that is the cost for each and how to allocate funds, plus wiring, room treatments, power line quality, and software maintenance (with LPs some type of record cleaning device seems essential).
With all that, I agree with inna, one should start by choosing speakers. Two reasons for that. One, they will likely have the greatest impact on your resulting sonic pleasure. And #2 if you start at the other end of the system chain you can paint yourself into a corner (hardly ever good for speaker placement ;^) ) with limited speaker choices.
For a very general guideline with a total $8K budget I would look at speakers between $2 and 3K. But will you look only at new or can used be considered as well? Just keep in mind you could find something costing less than $2K so don't feel locked in to a specific price point.
